If you’re discovering a smell from your heat pump, it’s attempting to tell you that something is up. We’ve developed a list of the top six heat pump smells, what causes them and how you can repair them.
- Heat pump smells musty
- Heat pump smells like fish
- Heat pump smells like sulfur
- Heat pump smells like sewer
- Heat pump smells like burning
- Heat pump defrost cycle smells
1. Heat Pump Smells Musty
If your heat pump smells musty, there’s likely mold growing on wet evaporator coils or in the ductwork. This heat pump odor is often known as dirty sock syndrome. You can deter this by scheduling routine heat pump maintenance and air duct cleaning.
2. Heat Pump Smells Like Fish
If your heat pump smells like fish, there could be a couple of things wrong:
- Motor is too hot
- Wiring issue
- Plastic components or coating is melting
- Other mechanical issue
Electrical problems are serious, so shut your heat pump system off right away at the breaker box and call us at for heat pump repair.
3. Heat Pump Smells Like Sulfur
Often when you are dealing with a rotten egg smell, you’ve got a gas leak. But your heat pump doesn’t utilize natural gas. If your heat pump smells like sulfur, a little animal may have creeped inside it for warmth and died. One of our Durable Service experts can get rid of the smell by cleaning your heat pump.
4. Heat Pump Smells Like Sewer
As we mentioned earlier, your heat pump is electric, so any rotten egg smells are linked to a gas leak in another place. If your heat pump smells like sewer, you might currently have a backed-up or broken sewer line. We advise contacting a company that does sewer line repair.
5. Heat Pump Smells Like Burning
You might be dealing with an electrical problem if your heat pump smells like burning, burning plastic or burning rubber. This burning smell can be the result of melting plastic on electrical wires. Electrical troubles in HVAC systems are serious and could cause a fire. If you notice this smell, shut off your heat pump at the breaker and get a hold of us at .
6. Heat Pump Defrost Cycle Smells
Like we talked about above, a dirty socks smell can happen when your evaporator coils need cleaning. You might notice this smell when your heat pump is in defrost mode.
It’s common for your heat pump to have to turn on defrost mode during heating season. When the air is much colder, frost can form quickly on the coils from condensation and interfere with heating. During defrost mode, your heat pump briefly switches to ac to remove the frost.
Having a Durable Service HVAC technician clean the coils will help eliminate the odor.
Trust Us with Your Heat Pump Repair Needs
It can be confusing to troubleshoot your heat pump by alone. Your comfort matters to us at Durable Service, so you can count on our specialists to support you when you need us. When you need heat pump repair in that you can depend on, call us at .
